Wayne's comments about energy savings prompts me to share the following website with everyone. This is a **very** comprehensive model developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I recently discovered it while investigating potential savings to convert my present air exchange heat pump to a ground source heat pump. In my case, the model very accurately (<5% error) predicted our total annual household energy usage compared to our actual electric bill (13,288 kWh per year total for all energy). The model provides estimated savings and ROI for improving energy usage options (one of which is switching to more efficient lighting as Wayne did). In my case, out total heating and cooling usage was already so low (~$500 per year) that conversion from a reasonably efficient air source heat pump (SEER 13.0) to ground source was not justified on an ROI basis.
http://hes.lbl.gov/ While the heat pump conversion was not economically justifiable, I did discover one startling fact. I've been in the habit of leaving the tower computer in my shack on continuously (without going into sleep mode). Assuming 200 W/hr consumption, this amounts to 1,752 kWh per year ($185 per year at our $0.106 per kWh rate) which is a staggering 13% of my total energy bill! Needless to say I'm no longer leaving that computer on. If you carefully enter the data for your household into the model above, you may discover some cost effective alternatives for saving energy...and money. It takes awhile to enter all the data accurately but I found it well worthwhile. 73, Bill W4ZV -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/OT%3A-Home-Energy-Audit-Website-tp2585137p2585137.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
